No, the Jazz didn’t reach the playoffs or even the play-in round last season. But given what the initial hopes and expectations were for the squad, in the aftermath of the Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert deals, most Utah fans had to be thrilled with how well the club performed, especially since executive Danny Ainge took his foot off the pedal from a postseason contention standpoint by dealing a number of veteran assets at the trade deadline.
It all figures to make the Jazz, who won 37 games last season under those circumstances, one of the more interesting teams to watch this year. Big man Walker Kessler gets a chance to build on a fantastic rookie season in which he shot 72% and blocked 173 shots, the fourth most in the league. And Lauri Markkanen, an All-Star and the NBA’s reigning Most Improved Player, returns after logging the best campaign of his career, having averaged an impressive 25.6 points and 8.6 rebounds on almost 50% shooting from the field. None of this even touches on the fact that Utah also gets 25-year-old John Collins, who came over from Atlanta via trade for almost nothing: a second-round pick and Rudy Gay, who likely wouldn’t have played much this season, anyway. The deal represents a low-risk, high-reward move that gives the Jazz core one more young, talented player with potential to still be teased out.
